The High Court on Friday directed listing of the former Chief Minister and NC president Farooq Abdullah’s plea against Enforcement Directorate on March 8.
Abdullah has challenged the jurisdiction of the ED to attach his assets in connection with a money laundering probe linked to alleged financial irregularities in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA).
As the petition came up for consideration before the bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey, the judge declined to hear the case citing that he had earlier declined to hear related cases.
Pointing out that he has earlier declined to hear PIL 08/2014 titled Majid Yaqoob Dar and another Vs State and others and LPA 293/2019 titled Ahsan Ahmad Mirza and others Vs Enforcement Directorate and another, Justice Magrey said: “The judicial propriety demands the case be listed before some other bench on 08.03.2021”.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra with Shri Singh and senior counsel Javid Ahmad Kawoosa with Areeb Javid Kawoosa appeared on behalf of Abdullah.
In the petition the NC president and MP Farooq Abdullah submits that his ancestral and family properties in Jammu and Kashmir have been illegally attached by the ED as it had no jurisdiction to do the same.
“On the date of the registration of the ECIR (Enforcement Commission Information Report) and the initiation of investigation, the State of Jammu & Kashmir was governed by the Constitution of Jammu & Kashmir, 1956 and had special status in terms of Article 370 of the Constitution of India”, the petition reads.
The petition pleads that on 28.12.2018 the ED registered the ECIR with section 120B RPC in the FIR and failed to appreciate that it had no jurisdiction to register it.
“The PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) was not a law which could extend to the jurisdiction of the State of Jammu & Kashmir, as the Parliament was not having legislative competence to enact the said law in terms of the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954,” says the petitioner.
Furthermore, he says, the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) enacted in the State of Jammu and Kashmir on 6 August, 1932 was not a central law nor was Section 120B of the RPC or any other provision of it contained in the Schedule to the PMLA.